Mansfield

Mansfield, town and district, administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, England, on the River Maun. Mansfield was the chief town of Sherwood Forest—the legendary base for the activities of Robin Hood, the medieval robber and popular hero—and the forest court was held in the town’s Moot Hall (built 1752).

The population of Mansfield grew with the 19th-century expansion of coal mining and the hosiery industry, and both remain major local employers of labour. Hard red and white sandstone quarried near the town of Mansfield Woodhouse, 2 miles (3 km) north of Mansfield, was used to build the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. The district also includes the town of Warsop and part of Sherwood Forest. Area district, 30 square miles (77 square km). Pop. (2001) town, 69,987; district, 98,181; (2011) town, 77,551; district, 104,466.